Chapter 40: Qi is everywhere

  "Be mindful and feel it, energy is everywhere."

  Just as Zong Yin was about to seek help from Hun Yu, Hun Yu's voice had already reached his heart, and no matter how loudly Zong Yin shouted afterwards, he got no response.

  The soul power that had been flowing incessantly within Zong Yin's body gradually slowed down, and he understood that if the soul power completely stopped flowing before he could feel the energy, the Energy Stone would be out of his reach. Furthermore, with his Heart Wheel damaged, it meant that within two years, his body could only condense one Soul Stone at most. And to condense a Central Soul Stone, Zong Yin had to wait until his soul power reached 1,000 strands and became a Soul Master.

  After the seventh level of Soul Master, it would take at least three to five months or even longer to accumulate 300 strands of soul power, even with the help of Queen Bee Venom. When Zonghui's soul power reached the seventh level, not only did the duration of the Queen Bee Venom in his body shorten significantly, but its effect also decreased by several times compared to when he first used it. It's likely that later on, it would be even more difficult for him to form a single strand of soul power.

  If Zong Yin fails to condense the Qi Gathering Stone this time, he will likely suffer losses in the next few monthly trials and ultimately be unable to obtain the Soul Technique "Star Burst". His desire to break free from the shackles of the soul lock chain will also become a distant dream, and everything will become unacceptable to Zong Yin.

  A string of benefits and harm flowed through Zong Yin's heart, but the anxiety in his heart disappeared, and at this moment he calmed down, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let his whole body and mind follow the increasingly slow flow of soul power.

  As Zong Yin calmed his mind, he suddenly discovered a lively voice in his body. It wasn't the feeling of soul power, but rather something more vibrant than the stiff soul power. They were cheering, jumping and shuttling through Zong Yin's meridians, flesh and blood, chasing each other.

  It seems that Zong Yin has sensed them, and in the blink of an eye, these lively little spirits have disappeared. Zong Yin can feel that they haven't disappeared, but rather hid into the air holes that are like the palm of his hand and the soles of his feet, secretly peeking out. What surprises Zong Yin is that there are thousands of such air holes in his body.

  Subconsciously, Zong Yin's perception followed these mischievous little guys into the air hole, and this time they didn't dodge anymore, but instead surrounded Zong Yin's perception in the middle. Zong Yin suddenly had a feeling that he was like a monkey in a zoo, attracting countless people to watch.

  Zong Yin had already realized that these mischievous little guys were probably the "qi" mentioned by Hun Yu. Just as he didn't know what to do, Zong Yin's soul power flowing throughout his body had all returned to the Human Soul Stone, and his perception naturally followed the soul power into the stone. Those mischievous little guys, chuckling and laughing, followed Zong Yin's perception into the Human Soul Stone.

  When Zong Yin opened his eyes again, he suddenly found that the whole world had changed. Even in the dark of night, the world was full of colors and countless ripples filled the air, with many slowly flowing into his body.

  "Everywhere... is this ki?"

  Zong Yin stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to grasp those light strips in his hand, but the light strips slipped away from his fingers like sand.

  Immediately, Zong Yin opened his palm, and he could clearly see strands of light points escaping from his palm, while new light points were constantly entering his body through his pores, reaching a strange balance.

  "Not bad, this is the energy. Next, condensing the Energy Stone will depend on you yourself, press your Human Soul Stone under the navel wheel, extract the energy from the energy holes around your body and inject it into the throat wheel, with energy as the foundation, with soul as the body, with wheels as the hole, condense the Energy Stone."

  In a tone that was not without approval, Hun Yu said, without being verbose, and told Zong Yin the true method of condensing the Qi Ling Stone. After that, he fell silent again. It seemed that Zong Yin's ability to move Hun Yu's soul had weakened somewhat compared to before, apparently using Hun Yu's soul power was not a small consumption for him.

  Zong Yin concentrated his attention from the outside world to the inside of his body, where large and small whirlpools were densely packed all over. These must be the meridians and acupoints within the human body. With Zong Yin's current abilities, he was unable to enter those smaller qi holes, but he could enter the twelve major qi holes throughout his body.

  Although it's difficult to sense the air, mobilizing it is simple. Those mischievous little guys, under Zong Yin's guidance, each flowed out a thin stream from the twelve major air holes, gathered together and poured into the throat wheel. The air gathered quickly dispersed again, like scattered sand. After mobilizing enough air, Zong Yin extracted all the soul power from the Human Soul Stone and injected it into the throat wheel.

  In an instant, Zong Yin's throat felt a wave of dryness, and his soul power and gathered energy seemed to solidify like cement meeting water, transforming into a lump of concrete. A dull blue irregular bead took shape, and suddenly it began spinning wildly. All the large and small acupoints on Zong Yin's body moved simultaneously, and countless streams of energy surged towards the throat wheel. The soul stone, now devoid of soul power, also started to stir restlessly, as if trying to enter the throat wheel and seize control over the soul power and energy.

  Zong Yinyin's deathly stillness suppressed the Human Soul Stone at his navel, and this time its fluctuations were even more intense than when he last condensed the Essence of the Spirit.

  On the one hand, he was exerting all his strength to suppress the strange movement of the Human Soul Stone, and on the other hand, Zong Yin was also observing the changes in the Qi Spirit Stone. This time's monthly trial, Zong Yin could fully rely on the Qi Spirit Stone to play its magical effect.

  The pale blue bead that was first formed in the throat wheel continued to devour soul power and energy, and it was unknown how much energy was stored in Zonghui's acupoints throughout his body. It lasted for a full minute, and his acupoints were still continuously transporting energy to the Energy Spirit Stone.

  And that pale blue gas stone was like a bottomless pit, its body didn't swell at all, and its original irregular shape became more and more rounded.

  Finally, when Zong Yin felt an intense hunger and couldn't muster any strength throughout his body, the pale blue Air Spirit Stone suddenly lit up brightly, no longer absorbing air from the air holes to enlarge itself. A gentle, more intimate and lively aura flowed out slowly from the Air Spirit Stone.

  It was as if the mountain spring had nourished the parched land, and every meridian and acupoint that the energy passed through felt a sense of comfort. Zong Yin couldn't help but want to cry out in joy, and what made him even more delighted was that he could feel that wherever the airflow from the Qi Stone had turned, he had been strengthened. His physical strength and power had increased by at least five levels. Previously, his body was only comparable to a Soul Apprentice of the fifth level, but now, even if he were to engage in a fierce battle with a Soul Apprentice of the seventh level, it wouldn't be a problem.

  Unlike the silent transformation of He Lishi, the change in Qi Bao Shi can indeed be felt. As Qi Bao Shi took shape, Zong Yin relinquished control over the Human Soul Stone, which immediately shot out from the Dantian and collided with the Qi Bao Shi in the throat wheel.

  When the Human Soul Stone approached the Qi Bo Stone, the Qi Bo Stone generously split out several strands of gas to wrap around the Human Soul Stone. A faint blue color occupied about one-third of the position of the Human Soul Stone.

  "I'm so hungry..."

  Although he had successfully condensed the Qi, Zong Yin didn't feel any excitement at all. The intense hunger and fatigue made him not want to move even a bit. It felt like he hadn't eaten for several days and was on the verge of starving to death.

  "Your body has lost too much internal energy, and I didn't expect that forming a Qi Pill would require so much energy. Fortunately, replenishing energy is quite simple, the most direct and effective way being to eat food, which your body will automatically convert into energy and store in your body's energy points."

  Hun Yu patiently explained, after all, no one had ever used soul power as a guide to condense the core of strength with Qi. Hun Yu also never thought that simply condensing an air crystal would almost drain the storage of all the large and small air holes in Zong Yin's body over the past decade.

  Fortunately, the recovery of Qi is slow and there are many effective ways to replenish it, the simplest being eating food to convert it into Qi.

  "What am I supposed to go find food at this late hour?!"

  Zong Yin's face immediately fell, if it were daytime, he could still go to the cafeteria for a big meal, but now it was already late at night, and finding food to fill his hunger was quite difficult, especially in the prestigious school of Ding Sheng Hun that implemented curfews. As long as it was after dark, no matter what reason you had for moving around inside the school, you would be beaten up first before anything else.

  "Then try communicating with heaven and earth, drawing in the energy of heaven and earth, and transform it into inner power."

  "I'm going, it seems quite mysterious, what should I do."

  Hun Yu said so casually, but Zong Yin was suddenly speechless. You see, the things that come out of Hun Yu's mouth are absolutely mysterious in another world, and almost hang on to the immortal. Stirring up the energy of heaven and earth, just thinking about it is awesome!

  "Absorb it, you're surrounded by so much energy, as long as you can incorporate it into your body, it will gradually become useful to you. With your current abilities, I estimate that you don't have the skill to directly absorb energy through your pores. Open your palm, use the acupoint on your palm as a channel to absorb the free-flowing energy between heaven and earth. The more vibrant the energy is, the higher its quality will be, which is what people commonly refer to as spiritual energy."

  Hun Yu still had that tone of yours, carelessly explaining.

  At this moment, Zong Yinyin didn't bother to respond to the cold ridicule and hot sarcasm of Hun Yu, and instead opened his palms facing the faintly visible aura in front of him, wanting to absorb it into his body.

  "You're stupid! You didn't rotate the acupoints, how can he absorb the air? Do you still remember the scene when forming the Ling Stone? Rotate and absorb, get it?"

  Zong Yinyin had been fiddling around for half a day and hadn't even actively guided any of the spiritual energy into the acupoints, so in the end, Hun Yu couldn't bear to watch anymore and spoke up.

  Zong Yinhuan suddenly enlightened, mobilized the air in the air hole, started to rotate, and indeed as Hun Yu said, the air near his palm was immediately sucked into his air hole.